The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Ponnala inspects leakage to Pushkara pipe project

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Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Ponnala inspects leakage to Pushkara pipe project

Staff Reporter

PURUSHOTHAPATNAM (East Godavari): Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Irrigation Secretary Sutheertha Bhattacharya on Tuesday inspected the leakage to one of the main pipelines of Thota Venkatachalam Pushkara Lift Irrigation Scheme.

The pipeline leaked near Ramavarapu Aava, 3.5 km away from the main pump house here on Monday night. By Tuesday morning, officials detected four leakages between 2.7 and 2.8 km and began repair work on a war-footing.

The Minister and the Secretary went to the head works stage-I area and inspected four pumping motors, pipeline and areas where pumping was being done. Mr. Lakshmaiah asked the officials to plug the leakage at the earliest and requested the media not to blow “the small leakage” out of proportion. “When crores of rupees are being invested in a major project like this, a few problems do occur,” he observed.

A total of 1,500 tmcft of water is being lifted from this project and pipes were laid about three years ago. Now, Irrigation officials have decided to replace pre-tensed concrete pipes with steel pipes after the inauguration of the project.

Enquiries revealed that the leakage was caused due to starting all the four motors at a time during the trial run on Monday evening.

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